The Loebner Prize Competition in Artificial Intelligence was
established in 1990 by the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies
to further the scientific understanding of complex human behavior.
The Loebner Prize Medal and a cash award will be given annually to
the designer of the computer system that best succeeds in passing
a modern variant of the Turing Test. In 1994 the cash award will
be $2,000, and the amount will be increased from time to time.
Initially, the test will be simplified to give current computer
systems a reasonable chance of successfully imitating human beings.
In 1995 and periodically thereafter, an open-ended Turing Test will
be conducted. At some point, should a computer system succeed in
passing the test in all its particulars--in other words, should
human judges be unable to distinguish the computer system from a
human being--a grand prize of at least $100,000 will be awarded, and
the prize will be discontinued.

Applications for the 1993 competition must be postmarked by
November 1, 1994. Submissions will be evaluated and screened and
no more than eight finalists selected by November 21, 1994. The
1994 finalists will compete in a simultaneous and real-time
competition on Monday, December 12, 1994, in San Diego, California.

Applications must be accompanied by a non-refundable fee ($10
U.S.A. for individuals, $25 U.S.A. for groups or institutions), as
well as by printed protocols recording interactions between the
computer system to be entered and one or more human subjects.
Protocols must not exceed ten typewritten double-spaced pages. The
Committee may request an opportunity to interact with the candidate
program. Transcripts and scores from the 1991, 1992, and 1993
competitions may be obtained by contacting the Cambridge Center for
Behavioral Studies at 617-491-9020.

Please review the accompanying rules carefully and provide the
following information:

OFFICIAL RULES 1994 LOEBNER PRIZE COMPETITION

1. The objective of the 1994 Loebner Prize Competition is to
identify the computer system that can best succeed in passing a
modern variant of the Turing Test. Judges will attempt to
distinguish computer systems (referred to henceforward as "contes-
tants") from human beings (referred to henceforward as "confeder-
ates" or "human confederates") based on interactions with these
entities over computer terminals.

2. Applicants may be individuals, organizations, businesses,
schools, corporations, institutions, or other entities. Individu-
als need not have institutional affiliations. Applicants may be of
any nationality or age. Applicants may submit more than one entry
during the same year, but a separate application must be completed
for each entry.

3. Employees, affiliates, and agents of the Cambridge Center for
Behavioral Studies, Crown Industries, Inc., or of other official
contest sponsors, as well as members of the families of such
individuals, are not eligible to apply.

4. Applications for the 1994 Prize competition must be made on an
official application form (or facsimile) and must be accompanied by
a non-refundable application fee ($10 U.S.A. for individuals, $25
U.S.A. for groups). Applications must be postmarked by November 1,
1994. Applications should be submitted to: Robert Epstein,
Contest Director, Loebner Prize Competition, 1087 Woodlake Drive,
Cardiff by the Sea, CA 92007-1009 U.S.A.

5. For the 1994 competition, applicants must specify a single
domain of discourse in which their computer system will be
proficient. The domain must be in good taste and must be expressed
by a single English phrase containing no more than five words. No
domain will be excluded a priori; however, applicants are discour-
aged from choosing highly specialized or esoteric topics that would
make their systems easy to distinguish from ordinary human beings.

6. Computer entries may contain standard or customized software
and hardware. The hardware may be of any type as long as it is
inorganic and as long as its replies are in no manner controlled by
human beings or other organic systems in real time.

7. For the 1994 competition, entrants must be prepared to
interface their systems to standard computer terminals over
telephone lines at 2400 baud.

8. For the 1994 competition, computer entries must communicate
using approximations of natural English, and they must be prepared
to communicate for an indefinite period of time.

9. Applications must be accompanied by printed protocols recording
actual interactions between the system to be entered and one or
more human beings. The protocols may not exceed ten double-spaced
typewritten pages.

10. Application materials will be evaluated by the Loebner Prize
Committee or its representatives. The Committee reserves the right
to have its members or representatives interact with the candidate
program as part of the evaluation process. Applicants will be
notified of the Committee's decisions by November 21, 1994. No
more than eight entries will be selected as finalists to compete in
a real-time and simultaneous contest to be held in San Diego,
California, on Monday, December 12, 1994.

11. Judges and human confederates for the 1994 competition will be
selected by the Prize Committee. The Committee will make reason-
able efforts to select judges who have no special expertise in
computer science or any prior knowledge about any of the contes-
tants or human confederates.

12. Judges will have one or more opportunities to interact with
each of the computer terminals available concurrently during the
contest. Judges will be instructed to restrict their communica-
tions to the domain of discourse posted by each terminal and to
pose their communications in an approximation of natural English.
They will be informed that at least two of the terminals are
controlled by human confederates and that at least two of the
terminals are controlled by computers.

13. The Prize Committee reserves the right to have one or more
referees present who may limit the judges' communications.

14. The conversations generated during the contest will be
displayed on screens in real time, and an audience will be present.
The conversations will be recorded, and the recordings will remain
the property of the Loebner Prize Competition, which will also
retain the copyright on transcripts or other representations,
magnetic or otherwise, of the recordings.

15. The Prize Committee reserves the right to buffer the responses
of the human confederate or confederates in order to correct typing
irregularities.

16. Domains of discourse of the confederates will be selected by
the Prize Committee. Confederates will be instructed to answer
questions about other domains by saying, "I'm sorry, I can only
talk about fishing today," "I can't talk about that," and so on.
Applicants are advised to protect their programs in a similar
fashion.

17. Judges will not be allowed to interact with each other and
will be instructed to provide individual ratings of each of the
computer terminals, based on their assessment of the appropriate-
ness and responsiveness of the replies.

18. The 1994 Loebner Prize Medal and a $2,000 cash award will be
given to the designer of the computer system with the highest
overall median score, based strictly on the ratings of the contest
judges. Mean scores will be used only to break a tie.

19. The winning entry may, at the discretion of the Prize
Committee, be required to submit to one or more verification
procedures to ensure that the computer system's performance is in
no manner guided by human beings or other organic systems in real
time.

20. The names "Loebner Prize" and "Loebner Prize Competition" may
be used by contestants in advertising only by advance written
permission of the Contest Director in return for ten percent of
gross revenues received on sales (or some other percentage
established by mutual agreement). Advertising will be subject to
approval by representatives of the Loebner Prize Competition.
Improper or misleading advertising may result in revocation of the
prize and/or other penalties.